Studying Finance

So I have a brutal exam tomorrow, in the meantime, i find this song rather soothing…. who knows. Maybe I have this deep desire to set the world on fire, but I just love you too much.

Beer Pressure

So I know it’s been a while. Well, more than a while actually. Way too long is more like it.

I sorta went through this thing…that led to another thing, which led to me having no desire to write anything at all. But now I feel that I am back into my normal skin and a different state of mind. On that note, I thank Julian for beer pressuring me tonight into writing this post.

I guess I had thought that Canada was so boring and not worth writing about. However, with the friends that I have and the situations that I always seem to end up in, there are things worth telling to others. It might not be about an exotic location or a an amazing type of food or about the differences of culture, but there are stories about my life, my friends, the random evenings, and the really strange things that always seem to happen to just me.

For example? Last night after I finished writing my first midterm I went to the student bar (as per usual). There, I met this guy who I now wish I never met. Obnoxious, self-centered, and completely ignorant are the three best ways I could describe him. Regardless of his personal nature, I will never forget him singing some east-coast Canadian song about a lass, out loud, in the middle of the bar, with everyone being like ‘what the fuck who is this douchebag.’ I hope I never see him again in my life despite being serenaded to.

I guess I’m just one of those people that odd and unusual and exciting things will happen to.  And regardless of where I am in the world, they are worth writing about. So stay tuned, it’s about to get messy.

Thanks Julian, and Happy Birthday.

I Have Moved On… Geographically

About two and a half months have gone by since my last post. What happened? Where did I go? Anything new to tell? Wish I could give you answers to all of your potential questions, but honestly… I still can’t.

Over the past months, I have written version after version in attempts to explain what has happened to me since the day I stopped writing. All of my attempts just didn’t cut it. I didn’t want to post something that fucking sucked, obviously, being less than par was never what I aimed for… So, I simply didn’t write. Even writing this now is painful…hopefully less painful for you to read than for me to write.

Anyways, I still can’t tell you properly what went down, when does one really understand their own brain and its actions? Although, I can tell you that, initially, something tweaked and I lost it for about 5 days. I had quite honestly given up, left reality, got lost in my own head, straight became left, left became backwards, backwards was my vision, and have very little recollection of what I did for 5 days. I wandered dead as a zombie before making the decision to take back over my brain.

Sort of back in control of myself, I did what any respectable traveler would do: I peaced the fuck out. I took myself out of the situation and left for Bolivia (which is a whole other story). In a way, it was the best possible decision I could have made. In other ways, it made life more difficult. After running away was all said and done I had just ended up back where I started.

The last post I made on Feb 25th I said ” Life and death, take and give, or grow and wilt, we all move on.” Rather optimistic, eh? Well, I have moved on… at least geographically.  One thing after another led to me flying home to Canada on April 7th.  The adventures and misadventures in South America abruptly ended and I felt as if I hit a stop sign going 120km/hr. I didn’t see it coming, but it was the right choice, and I don’t regret it.  Other than geographically, I have not moved on…and that’s about as about as far as I’m going with that one right now.

So..there’s the update ladies and gents. Yeah, I feel like shit and, Yeah, life’s a bitch.

But you know what? I’m a bitch too, and I’m back.

I’m So Sorry

However you look at it, sunday night or the wee hours of the monday morning, the same heart breaking thing happened. I lost my best friend, my cat Capone, to two dogs who live next door.  They got him off my roof and killed the most amazing cat ever.  I know for some of you it may seem silly to be so upset over a pet, but he was truly the only consistent, reliable, and loving creature in my life. No matter what happened or where I was in my own head, he made me feel so much better, so much less alone, and always brought out a smile. I agonizingly miss him and I don’t want to believe he’s gone.  Alas, death is a part of life that we can’t avoid, no matter how awful it might be. Life and death, take and give, or grow and wilt, we all move on.

Posting other stories just isn’t going to happen for a while.  Capone… everyone who reads this frequently….

I’m so sorry.

Irk

“Irk” – a feeling given by a situation that gives you a twitch or slightly aggravates or frustrates you.  Generally is the feeling accompanied with a clenched jaw, pursed lips, or a low growl of frustration.

This story takes place over a two day time period and happened a few days ago. I was told I needed a document called CUIL (it’s like a social insurance number so the government can take income tax) in order to legally work in Argentina. The process to get this document included having: a passport/form of identification, proof I was living here (visa etc), and a document proving where I lived. I had the first two, my passport and my student visa, but then I went on a hunt to get the last one which is a document of domicilio. So, I had to go to the cop shop of my neighbourhood, talk to the police, pay them 10 pesos, and then they said they’d come to my house the next day. If it wasn’t for the extremely hot police officer who could turn me into a criminal just so I could see him again, this entire hunt was really a time wasting process. So, the following day they said they’d arrive between 9 and 2. Typically Argentine, they arrive at 2:30, ask me my name and my passport number, and give me a piece of paper. Boom. Done. Easy as pie and extremely sad that they had to waste two police officers time in order to do this.

The next day I’m off to the government office to go to get my CUIL number. It is summer here and everyone is roasting on the beaches, so they have shortened hours of 9-2, but I didn’t think it would be that bad. I had heard before that this is a 5 minute process and not that complicated. Well, apparently, 5 minutes means 3 hours. I show up at the place at 10am and the line up is 2 city blocks long. City blocks here aren’t a standard measure and they tend to vary greatly. These just happened to be two massive city blocks of which I had to wait in 35 degree weather, 75% humidity, and the scorching sun without a cloud in the sky. At least it was air conditioned inside for a better part of the wait.

I finally arrive at a desk where a guy asks for two photocopies of my documents when earlier they had told me just one photocopy. Cursing to myself, I head to the photocopier location in this building, which is definitely owned by that guys’ family and probably makes a killing everyday. All said and done, all documents handed in, 3 hours shot down the shit hole, they hand me a piece of paper with about 5 lines of Arial style text straight off of notepad. It could be so easily forged it’s unbelievable. Seriously, I could make all my friends one no problem. Anyways, I’m standing there with this piece of paper going… what the fuck, is there another part to this process? So I ask the guy and he’s like “no, see at the bottom? That’s your number. You have to go get this cut, folded, and laminated at the photocopy center at the front of the building.” He just stared dumbly at me when I adopted the facial expression lovingly known as ‘stunned’. I was stunned. I didn’t realize I would have to cut, fold, and laminate the piece of paper in order to make my own social security card. I was waiting for them to add onto the end that I’d have to pay extra for a hologram on it or something. Just to spice it up a bit I should have rainbow coloured it with markers before laminating it. Well, despite my newfound lack of respect for official documents here, I am at least now legally allowed to work here in the country.

Jumping back in time before the government office, that morning I got woken up at 8:20 and I’m never happy when I get woken up that early. The guy, ripped on cocaine or red bull (he moved at a speed unknown to humans at 8:20am), came to install my internet came 3 hours early, that’s cool. One hole in the side of my house later, I have cable internet! Well… I had cable internet. Typical of electronics in this continent, It worked for one day and then stopped working. So this morning I called the company and explained what was up and they tried to reset it from their end which didn’t work. The guy was like “okay well, we will have to send a technician to fix it, okay? How does the 20th of February sound?” Two. Bloody. Weeks. I shit a brick. I asked to speak to his supervisor about the shitty service (I really did say shitty) and to get an earlier date. He told me that his supervisor would say the same thing and that it was summer so no one was working and to just deal with it. TISA’d, man, completely TISA’d (This Is South America). Such a piss off. Then I told him to cancel my service so I wouldn’t have to pay for internet I didn’t have for the next two weeks and he was like “cancel your service? Really? But then you will have to resign all the contracts when they technician arrived.” Hmm, let me think here. Resign contracts or pay money for fucking nothing. That’s a tough one.

As a recap before I continue, the timeline has gone like this: police and house document, then the following break of dawn was the internet guy waking me up, and the morning/afternoon was waiting for my CUIL number. Since I didn’t get enough frustration out of that, I headed to the UPS warehouse to pick up a package my lazy ass ex-housemates wouldn’t answer the door for. I really should’ve just left it for another day, but as you know, I can be really stupid.

So off I went to my old apartment to pick up the delivery slips from UPS and then to their warehouse in the city. Go figure the warehouse is in the sketchiest area ever and I have to take a cab part of the way.  So I get inside and hand them the slip and they come back with a peice of paper that has a tracking number on it. “Well, the package actually never arrived here, it got stuck at customs. So you have to go to the International Cargo Terminal and pick it up with this number. They will charge you a holding fee there. Oh, that will be $85.50.” Fuck right off, eh? What the hell is it with everything I try getting sent to me getting stuck at customs in the international cargo terminal which is a 2 hour trip outside the city.  I told the dude I wasn’t paying $85.50 for a tracking number when my aunt had already paid for the package to arrive and it didn’t.  Unbelievable.  I bet the guy at UPS has a buddy at customs and whenever anything expensive comes through they decide to nail foreigners for more money.  So I told him I wasn’t paying and I’d come back later if I was going to ever pick up the package. Which is probably never.

So, that is what I’ve been up to.  I’m basically broke and can’t afford food or next month’s rent. Although eating a banana with milk smoothie and 3 empanadas a day as my daily food intake is quite possibly the best diet ever, it probably doesn’t cut it. Things are looking up, though, with my work documents in order and all of that.  I just hope I don’t have to deal with the public or government systems in this country ever again.

Cuidate!

Moving Days

The past month has been a whirlwind. Up in the air, whirling around, feet not on the ground, and not entirely sure what’s going to happen next, basically sums it all up. It always comes down to several defining events, situations, or people that just make life extra mind-blowing. You would think that after all of this time in South America that I would be used to the feeling of the unexpected or being caught completely off guard. But, alas, some stuff still makes my jaw drop, my head shake in disbelief, or it leaves me saying “how did I get into this?”

At the beginning of January, I left my palace bachelor apartment for the ghetto. Not quite literally the ghetto, of course, but a really sketchy area of the city. You know it’s bad when even the locals are like “why the fuck would you ever want to live there?” In the area called Once, it’s very multi-cultural with the majority being either Peruvians or Orthodox Jewish. With textiles and cheap clothing being what the area is well known for, it is definitely an interesting combination to see bearded Jewish children walking amongst Peruvians carrying massive bolts of colourful fabric. Nothing is open on weekends or at night, so it’s the perfect breeding ground for little fuckers to walk around and cause trouble. There is even a main plaza, called Plaza Once, where I would never even dream of walking through it…. Never. Not any day or any time. I will walk close in order to get into the subway, but that’s about it.

A few blocks from where I lived in Once, I was with a friend, who is in a rather shady business himself, on the terrace of his house having some beers. He pointed over the edge and said “check out those three kids, they’re going to rob that car.” I thought… no way, it’s only 10:30pm, there are other cars, it’s parked under a light, and it definitely has an alarm. But, sure enough, with skilled precision and experience, those kids popped open the door, and stole everything from inside including the stereo system. This all happened in under a minute while the car alarm was going off. No one on the street or from their apartments did shit all, including myself. I just watched in awe as they worked like skilled professionals, stealing what they would otherwise never have. Within seconds, three motorcycles pulled up and picked up the kids getting away, then drove off without any issues.

That’s just talking about the neighbourhood, not even my apartment which ultimately ended up worse. I lived with two Argentine guys who are really cool and permanently stoned. I thought this would make life easy, but unfortunately, it just made my life really frustrating. I guess I’ll start a little venting session here, why not… but where to begin. Well, not even in my apartment, the elevator always smelled like one of three things: piss, cigarettes, or a mixture of both.

Okay, so the apartment itself was a decent size but way overpriced. Weekly cleaning services my ass, there was never one clean dish in the entire place AND they broke all of the glasses I brought from my other apartment. There was no front door handle, the laundry room was a disaster, the laundry machine electrocuted you unless you unplugged it before touching it, plastic lawn furniture, one old and falling-apart therapist couch, a caved in ceiling in the bathroom, and one mirror in the entire place. My room didn’t have any hangers or shelves, just holes in the wall, in which I stuck pens and pencils in order to hang things. The bathroom I had beside my room only had a functioning light half the day because it was timed for the pot plants growing in the ceiling and I had to flush the toilet by pulling a knob through a hole in the wall then dodging water squirting out from the pipes. The list goes on, endlessly, no lies.

Now, my roommates are next on the chopping block. Honestly really awesome guys, but just so useless. With their spirits permanently stuck with Bob Marley, they constantly ate my food and didn’t tell me about it or admit to eating my food. This includes leftover pizza in the fridge, which I bought, and then they ate an entire half of the pizza and when I confronted them about it they said “oh… I couldn’t remember if we bought that or not.” What the fuck. Then they were constantly cooking at ridiculous hours, whether it was 3am or noon. My room was right beside the kitchen and because of their obsession with fruit smoothies, they would use my blender and it would wake me up. Finally, one of the guys is a musician with no job and, ironically enough, is a huge slut. Impressively slutty, actually. He normally had a different girl every week, but then he went on a sort-of bender and the count was 9 girls in 6 days, which is enough for me to not bother introducing myself when I see them around the house. It wasn’t until the 9th random girl (out of 6 days) took a shower at 7:30am, ran around the house drunk, naked, and screaming some song lyrics, did I decide that I had enough. The entire house just eventually ended up smelling like a blend of mould, sweat, marijuana, and used whore. As I laid there in bed listening to her worthless existence, I put my foot down and decided that it is not fucking worth it. Even though I still had a paid week left in the month, within two days I lucked upon finding another place and moved out on the third day.

Did I ever luck out with the new place. It is a little far out, about 45min to get to downtown on public transpo, but damn is it ever worth it. It’s a house that has been newly renovated and the family is still in Italy, so their buddy is just renting it out for cheaper cheap in order to pay for utilities. It’s two floors with a rooftop terrace/grill, a garage, downstairs patio, and one other girl living with me. So far she’s really cool shit and there have been no problems at all, although, we will see! So I have my own room with a huge double closet, two single mattresses pushed together on the floor to make a double, en suite bathroom, and Capone of course. He’s gotten himself stuck twice in the trees that are in the downstairs patio… so much for cats being able to climb trees. I have never slept so well and it’s definitely a vast improvement over the previous apartment. I don’t have internet yet, but that’s also partially due to me being lazy and not calling the company to come in and install it. Ah well, it’s a good excuse to haul my ass into the city to get free wifi.

That’s been just my whirlwind apartment situation, I haven’t even touched on the whole employment aspect of my life. I think I’ll save that until next time, I’m all vented out right now.

Cuidate!

Putzin’ Along

Life has been rather uneventful lately, to be perfectly honest. Or, it’s possible that I’m just becoming accustomed to weird things happening all the time. I’ve just been putzing along at the usual pace, doing some stuff, and simply finding myself rather unmotivated to tell anyone about it. I don’t want to leave you guys with nothing, so here are a few things that I’ve randomly jotted down.

1. January 10th was my one year anniversary of friendship with Agustina. That is a pretty big deal. Predictably, we celebrated this beautiful union by partying hard, which we both seem to have a talent for.

2. If a girl tells you that the girl she is dancing with is her girlfriend, and that is sole the reason she is turning you down, there is a good chance that it’s a lie. She just doesn’t want to dance with you and has a wide variety of reasons that would, most likely, hurt your ego. Deal with it.

3. Ive been trying to write a ‘letter of intent’ for a scholarship I’m applying for and, frustratingly, it is proving very difficult to write. I don’t exactly know why, I guess I just don’t like having to put into words why I’m so awesome. I appreciate the 500 word limit on the explanation of my existence and its purpose. Although…maybe if my English vocabulary wasn’t going down the shit hole I would be able to accomplish this task a bit better. I don’t suppose saying “Clearly, I am amazing and I deserve this scholarship based solely on my travels, previous employment stated in my resume, and the fact I am even bothering to apply.” No… that wouldn’t be a good idea.

4. I could be hallucinating, but I’m pretty sure the cement buildings in this city are emitting heat waves. The heat radiating off this concrete jungle contributes to air that feels more like a wet blanket than something you should breathe. The summer is now in full force and I am mentally bashing myself for not moving into an apartment with air conditioning. I suppose I will give myself a pat on the back for not contributing to city wide blackout problem.

5. I’m unemployed. Again. Back to plain rice it is!

That pretty much covers it. Hopefully next time I’ll actually have something worthwhile to say.
Cuidate.

Argentina, Baby, I Think We Might Need Relationship Therapy

I remember entering Argentina one year ago as if it was just last week. However, it feels like forever ago I walked across the border between Bolivia and Argentina on January 3^rd 2008. Continuing my longest relationship ever, I’m still in the country.  Yesterday was my one year anniversary of being in Argentina and, like most relationships, there are days I love it and days I despise it.  People have come and gone, events have started and ended, many days of thinking have passed, and many priceless stories are still waiting to be told. After all this time, Argentina still amazes me on the majority of days, I still bitch about certain aspects of local lifestyle and culture, some days I love being here, other days I hate being here, most days I feel crazy for still being here, and I still can’t keep up with the party scene. I guess some things will never change!

I didn’t really get to celebrate my one year mark, but it was a good time nonetheless. I managed to score a really sweet job at an ‘interesting’ bar. I say ‘interesting’ because I lack a better word. It’s one of those places for the kind of people who are characters, you know? When you can describe a certain person as a ‘character’, it means that they’re pretty fun but a little odd, or you’re not entirely sure where to categorize them. You have a great time with them, no doubt, but you doubt you’ll give them a call anytime soon. I bartend in the basement of the place, so the majority of the time, it’s like hosting a sweet house party. Of course I get paid shit all in Canadian terms, but it is enough for me to pay the bills here and, in a nutshell, that’s all I’m trying to accomplish.

It still baffles me to think that one year ago I was hauling my overweight backpack across the Bolivian-Argentina border, getting harassed by customs officials and eventually arriving to pouring rain in Salta, Argentina. Today, I’m relaxing in my bed in my new apartment, I have two great roommates (Javier and Matias), a job, bills to pay, and a cat named Capone. My life is definitely proof of the fact that you can never expect anything to happen or not happen in the future. All you can do roll with punches, do what you can to make you happy, and see where you end up!Who knows, you just might end up in the longest relationship ever.

Cuidate!

Changing Up

What the hell? Where did 2008 go?

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to everyone.  I really don’t understand how the year passed by so unbeleivably quickly.  I remember living it and it seemed so slow at the time, but now when I look back it went by way too fast. It was an unbelievable year, though, and I don’t regret a thing. It has quite possibly been my best year yet in so many different ways.

I used to always say “I’m 22 years old, but mentally stuck at 17. 17 was my best year so I just stayed there and didn’t really get older.” That phrase now feels wrong to me to say…  I think age 21 (year 2007-2008) has kicked age 17 in the ass and rose to the challenge of being my best year of life. “I’m 22, but mentally stuck at 21.”  Sounds a lot better to me. I’ve discovered so much about myself, improved as a person, travelled, and I feel like I truly experienced life.  21 seems like the perfect upgrade from 17.  Maybe 22 will be the next best year of my life? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

As 2009 is kicking off tomorrow, I’m also kicking off some massive changes in my life, which is also the reason why I haven’t posted as frequently.  All of my Canadian friends left, my entire group of party people, my parents came for three weeks and left last night, I very recently acquired a job at a bar, and I’m moving apartments. Ultimately, I’m completely changing my surroundings, my environment, my daily schedule, my friends, and my overall purpose here in Buenos Aires.  Change is a difficult thing to deal with, especially subconsciously.  I willingly, with a smile on my face, made all of these decisions to change and yet I can feel myself resisting it.  I know, I know, “suck it up, buttercup. You’re there in Argentina living life in the summer and I’m here in Canada in Snowmageddon.  Stop complaining and deal with it step by step.”

With that piece of advice in mind, coupled with a beautiful example of symmetry, as the year turns and starts new, I will also grow and change and start new.

Cuidate!

Mendoza Part 2

Dec 19th-22nd

So, life really knows how to surprise you. One minute I’m sitting around minding my own business in my 30 peso a night hostel, and the next morning I’m being chauffeured to the top wineries in Mendoza.  My dad booked a wine tour for all of us through a restaurant in the Hyatt, which basically consisted of a private driver going to wineries that are available through reservation and reference only. Our driver knew everyone in the entire area… well, anyone that had anything to with wine. So off we went to see some wineries, eat lunch at one, get some education and last to mention but certainly not least: wine tasting!

I love going to wineries and having a free wine tasting, or, even a tasting for a small fee. They usually load up the glasses, give you 4 or 5 different kinds, further your education, and have reduced prices for buying the bottles straight from the winery (I most definitely took advantage of the free delivery to Buenos Aires). Even if I’m not a huge fan of the wine I’m sampling, my parents and I consider it polite to finish every glass. This ‘politeness’ eventually lead to us being half drunk before noon. Classy.

After the first winery, we went to another for lunch. Lunch is an understatement. It was a 6 course meal accompanied by a different glass of wine for each course, which of course perfectly matched the meal, and bread that also matched everything. There were only 5 of us there eating and, due to the open kitchen concept, the chef was able to come talk to us about his dishes. His name was Pablo and my dad tried marrying me off to him… seriously, he did. I was so embarrassed but at the same time I would love to hook up with a chef. I can’t cook worth shit so the relationship would work out to my benefit. It was honestly the most incredible meal I have ever had and I will probably spend my life continuously disappointed by other 6 course meals.  It was really incredible to have a one-of-a-kind lunch while gazing at the Andes Mountains through the grape vines.  

One of the things that I love about Argentina is that anything can happen when you least expect it. This can be a good and a bad thing but at least it makes life interesting. After the winery tour and my nap (‘nap’ meaning passed out drunk), I was walking from my hostel to meet my parents for dinner when I heard beautiful classical music being playing in the main plaza. As it turns out, there was a free classical symphony/opera in the largest plaza plus a huge fireworks show right at the end. It was all put together by the city of Mendoza to celebrate the city and the coming of summer (the following day was the first day of summer). Also,what’s great is that all types and ages were out to enjoy the free concert by sitting on the grass, the benches, or some even brought their own lawn chairs.

Leaving Mendoza is always a tough thing to do, especially now that I’m not entirely sure when I’m going to return. This entire year I’ve had the mentality that I had the full year and some spare cash in order to return. I only returned twice during the year, although, I guess that’s sufficient for any traveler who is also studying. Now that I have to get a job, I won’t have that disposable income, and suddenly the bus is looking really expensive and the distance even longer. Who knows, hopefully the fermented grapes will call me back when I have the opportunity. Mendoza is great for the people, the relaxed pace, the lack of any stress, and lounging around on a lazy Sunday afternoon with new friends. Yeah, I think I’ll return someday. I already miss popping the cork of a Malbec, relaxing in the shade, and thinking about nothing in particular

Cuidate!